Clandon Park - Tim and Gayle's Wedding

So Friday was the wedding (as Flyingpops has already mentioned), this meant the alarm going off at practically the normal sort of time in the morning thanks to Flyingpops' Mum and Charlie (the hairdresser) arriving at about half eight...I made up my mind (with a lot of unhelpful worrying from Flyingpops) as to which shirt/tie combination I was going to wear and selected a nice pair of cufflinks (camper van-shaped ones in the end) and then had about 3 hours to burn before we actually needed to set off (sooo much quicker for a chap to get ready to go out than for a young lady... ;)

So I busied myself packing everything we were going to need for the night, charged camera batteries etc. and then relaxed playing the 360 until it was time to actually put on the suit and leave the house...about a mile from Flyingpops' folks house we pulled up to a fairly blind junction in the woodlands near Holmwood and were just craning our necks to check it was safe to pull out when a taxi zoomed up behind us and very rudely honked it's horn, it was only as we pulled onto the estate that we realised it was carrying Flyingpops' dad, running extremely late from his own barbers appointment in Reigate!

After that it all pretty much went off without much of a hitch (although some nerves were evident as Flyingpops and I were doing one of the readings and we weren't sure quite when we were supposed to be doing it)...we were pretty much the last people to arrive, but everyone was still milling around outside - the venue was the stunning "Clandon Park" just outside Guildford -

- the weather couldn't have been much better (cool and bright - perfect for events requiring suits etc.)...we all filed in, passing the ladies being stopped at the door to put small bits of plastic on their shoes -

- (even though the floor appeared to be largely made of solid granite) -

- and then in for the quick civil ceremony in an amazingly tapestried room (no photography allowed though) -

- our reading was practically the last bit of the show, and thanks to our practicing we delivered a polished performance (or so said practically everyone I shook hands with afterwards - although for some reason quite a number of them seemed to have concluded that we had either chosen it ourselves or actually written it personally, neither of which could we claim credit for, those responsible being the bride and Edward Monkton respectively)...Anyway the canapés and wine came out (nor did either seem to stop for the entire duration of the photography) -

- which took us on to what appeared to be the old wine cellar for the house, where we sat down to a fine dinner/speeches etc...



When this was all concluded we were then kicked out to enjoy the glorious gardens and a spectacular Surrey sunset while the DJ set up for the evening's entertainment -

- and the staff prepared more snacks -

- probably the only down-side of the whole thing was having to leave in time for the staff to have all our mess cleared up by midnight, but all good things must come to an end... ;)

Well, or so I thought until I woke up on Saturday barely able to walk thanks to a "dancing" injury...(feeling better now though, thanks for asking)... ;)